Online interest for health and well-being soar after Christmas period
2012: The year of health and well-being
Online interest for health and well-being soar after Christmas period
Sydney, Australia, 31 January 2012 – While the Olympics are still six months away, fitness fever has captured the nation according to online trends from Experian Hitwise over the January period.
Close analysis of internet visits within the field of Health and Medical gives insight into the health resolutions of the nation. Visits to the Nicabate site grew a staggering 4, 733 per cent on New Year’s Day suggesting that healthier lifestyles and quitting smoking are at the top of New Year resolutions for 2012. Overall, visits to the Health and Medical subcategory, Pharmaceutical and Medical, grew 87 per cent on the first day of 2012.
Visits to websites in the Experian Health and Medical category have remained high throughout January, with a further 3% growth in share of internet visits between 7 and 28 January. This suggests Australians are sticking by their New Year commitments and continued to visit health related sites during the month.
“Site visitation provides valuable insight into the topics and issues that are captivating the imagination of the nation. This insight is a powerful indicator of the topics that are high on the agenda for Australian consumers. For brands in the Health and Wellbeing sector, now is the time to communicate with customers and capitalise on this seasonal interest in this area,” explained Matt Glasner, General Manager, Experian Marketing Services.
Table 1: Visits Share by Category – Week ending 31 December 2011, compared with 7 January 2012 and 28 January 2012
As a share of all categories, the data from Experian Hitwise shows that the Health and Medical category grew 18.41 per cent from New Year’s Eve to New Year’s Day, almost double the 10.89 per cent average for growth.
Weightloss was also a big focus for online searches in the New Year, with sites Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig and Lite ‘n’ Easy all seeing growth immediately after New Year’s Eve. As the graph shows, this growth has plateaued but remains much higher than November and December 2011 levels.
Graph 1: Visits Share to weightloss sites in Health and Medical category – from 12 November 2011 to 28 January 2012
Looking at a different metric, search term share of traffic relating to the word ‘diet’ saw a significant peak in the first week of 2012 with a more than 30 per cent increase in searches compared with the last week of 2011.
Graph 2: Weekly Search Term Share of Traffic to ‘All Categories’ relating to the word ‘diet’– from 12 November 2011 to 28 January 2012
About Experian
Experian is the leading global information services company, providing data and analytical tools to clients in more than 80 countries. The company helps businesses to manage credit risk, prevent fraud, target marketing offers and automate decision making. Experian also helps individuals to check their credit report and credit score, and protect against identity theft.
Experian plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index. Total revenue for the year ended 31 March 2011 was US$4.2 billion. Experian employs approximately 15,000 people in 41 countries and has its corporate headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, with operational headquarters in Nottingham, UK; California, US; and São Paulo, Brazil.
For more information, visit http://www.experianplc.com.
About Experian Hitwise http://www.hitwise.com/au
Experian Hitwise is the leading online competitive intelligence service. Experian Hitwise gives marketers a competitive advantage by providing daily insights on how 25 million Internet users around the world interact with more than 1 million websites. This external view helps companies grow and protect their businesses by identifying threats and opportunities as they develop. Experian Hitwise has more than 1,500 clients across numerous sectors, including financial services, media, travel and retail.
Experian Hitwise (FTS:EXPN), www.experianplc.com, operates in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada and Brazil. More information about Experian Hitwise is available at www.hitwise.com.au.